Waiting for the Man

During the opening-credits sequence of this clumsy yet moody drama, a law-enforcement agent attempts to bring a new recruit up to speed about a sting targeting the heirs (John Harriman and writer-director John Covert) of a murdered Chicago mafioso. But it's way too early for viewers to digest this litany of crucial information, and the agent waxes philosophical in a grand tone, weighing the movie down like cement shoes. The loving attention lavished on gunshot effects and blood-drenched set pieces is remarkably unironic, but it buries the story and doomed characters prematurely.
ByLisa Alspector